led
successively the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Persians to cover
Western Asia with architectural monuments, proofs at once of the wealth,
and the grand ideas, of those who raised them. Parthia, compared to
these pretentious empires, was retiring and modest. The monarchs,
however rich they may have been, affected something of primitive
rudeness and simplicity in their habits and style of life, their
dwellings and temples, their palaces and tombs. It is difficult indeed
to draw the line in every case between pure Parthian work and Sassanian;
but on the whole there is, no doubt, reason to believe that the
architectural remains in Mesopotamia and Persia which belong to the
period between Alexander and the Arab conquest, are mainly the work of
the Sassanian or New Persian kingdom, and that comparatively few of them
can be ascribed with confidence to a time anterior to A.D. 227. Still a
certain number, which have about them indications of greater antiquity
than the rest, or which belong to sites famous in Parthian rather than
in Persian times, may reasonably be regarded as in all probability
structures of the Arsacid period; and from these we may gather at least
the leading characteristics of the Parthian architecture, its aims
and resources, its style and general effect, while from other
remains--scanty indeed, and often mutilated--we may obtain a tolerable
notion of their sculpture and other ornamental art.

The most imposing remains which seem certainly assignable to the
Parthian period are those of Hatra, or El-Hadhr, visited by Mr. Layard
in 1846, and described at length by Mr. Ross in the ninth volume of the
"Journal of the Royal Geographical Society," as well as by Mr. Fergusson,
in his "History of Architecture." Hatra became known as a place of
importance in the early part of the second century after Christ. It
successfully resisted Trajan in A.D. 116, and Severus in A.D. 198. It
is then described as a large and populous city, defended by strong
and extensive walls, and containing within it a temple of the Sun,
celebrated for the great value of its offerings. It enjoyed its own
kings at this time, who were regarded as of Arabian stock, and were
among the more important of the Parthian tributary monarchs. By the year
A.D. 363 Hatra had gone to ruin, and is then described as "long since
deserted." Its flourishing period thus belongs to the space between A.D.
100 and A.D. 300; and its remains, to which Mr. Ferg